


Three's A Crowd

by iwasanartist



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Coming Out, Good Friends, Howard Stark (mentioned) - Freeform, Loneliness, Multi, Peggy Carter (mentioned) - Freeform, Pepper Potts (mentioned) - Freeform, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 08:33:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16384769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwasanartist/pseuds/iwasanartist
Summary: Things didn't go quite as planned when Pepper and Tony invited Steve to join them in the bedroom, and the reason is one Tony would never have expected.





	Three's A Crowd

**Author's Note:**

> I thought this would be a bigger thing that included the whole threesome proposition, but it turns out for now this is the only scene I care about. But I love it and want to share it.

Tony stood in the small hallway of Steve's and rapped on the door. At first there was no answer, and Tony was ready to cut his losses and leave with a mixture of relief and disappointment. But he had barely taken a step back when the door opened just enough for Steve to lean against the jamb with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

"Yeah?"

“Pepper asked me to check on you," Tony said. "She’s worried.”

  
“Because I’m sad ‘lonely’ Steve, right?”  
  
“No, because you ran out of our place last night like we’d just offered to murder you, and that was a little weird.”  
  
“That was the weird part? Not ‘hey, why don’t we all f-” Steve cut himself off mid sentence and looked down at his shoes. He shook his head once and scratched behind his ear as he pushed the door open, turned around and walked to a dining chair, collapsing into it. “I’m sorry,” he continued. “I don’t mean to be rude.”  
  
Tony entered the apartment fully, closed the door and took a seat across the table..  
  
“You okay?”  
  
Steve shrugged his shoulders, staring at his hands as he dragged a thumb across his finger, scratching across the rough edges of a bitten nail. Tony thought he’d seen all sides of Steve. The fighter, the leader, the friend. He’d seen him happy and thoughtful and even afraid, though he always did his level best not to make it obvious. He’d seen him worried and exhausted.  
  
But he’d never seen Steve so incredibly empty. Like someone had hollowed out everything that made him Captain America and replaced it with stale rations from a 70-year-old war.  
  
“We just want to get you living your life again,” Tony said. “And Pepper thought a nice romp with friends could be just the fling you needed.”  
  
Steve made a face as he pulled a coffee mug to him and swirled the liquid inside.  
  
“A fling,” he said.   
  
“Yeah, have some fun; get the old pipes flowing again-”  
  
“I can’t do meaningless sex,” Steve cut in.   
  
“Yeah, but is it r-”  
  
“It’s not who I am,” Steve said forcefully. “I’m not like you.”  
  
“Like me?  
  
Steve closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.  
  
“Like you used to be,” he said. “Before Pepper. Yeah, I read the papers, Tony. I had a lot of catching up to do, and you showed up on Page 6 with a different girl on your arm more times than I could count. And besides...” Steve stopped talking, shook his head and downed the last of his coffee in two gulps.  
  
“Besides what?”  
  
“It’s nothing.” Steve stood and walked to the kitchen, returning with a pot of coffee. He refilled his mug and set the glass container down on a tea towel, never once looking up. Tony cocked his head, and something pulled him to his feet.  
  
“Is it me?” he asked. “Are you so resistant because-”  
  
“Stark, you don’t understand.”  
  
“No, I get it,” Tony said. “It’s fine. You’re not into what you’re not into, but-”  
  
“Oh, god, would you shut up.” Steve marched forward, put a hand on Tony’s chest and kept going, pushing Tony for three steps until his back hit the wall. Steve kept moving forward until their bodies pressed against each other and their lips met.   
  
Tony’s eyes went wide. It wasn’t until Steve brought one hand to his cheek, raking his thumb across his jaw that his eyes eased closed and he opened himself to Steve’s deepening kisses, returning them, and feeling lost in a moment he’d never actually expected but certainly didn’t regret. He brought a hand to Steve’s waist, letting his fingers curl into the cotton of his T-shirt.  
  
In a single, smooth movement, Steve moved to Tony’s arms, moving them from his body and pinning them against the wall before leaning further in. Tony couldn’t move. He didn’t want to move, and when Steve’s lips moved to the curve where his jaw met his neck, Tony let out an involuntary sound somewhere between a whimper and a gasp.  
  
Steve froze. Tony could feel the shivering breath on his neck before Steve shifted, pressing his forehead into the plaster wall.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Steve whispered. If they hadn’t been so close, Tony was certain he wouldn’t even have heard it.  
  
It doesn’t have to be meaningless,” Tony whispered back. “We care about you, Steve.  **We**  care.”  
  
“I know,” Steve said. “But I can’t.” He pushed himself off the wall, putting space between the two of them before speaking again at full volume. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t.”   
  
Tony watched him retreat to the kitchen, and through the slats of open shelving he could see the flush on Steve’s face as he pulled two tumblers from a top shelf. His lips still tingled where Steve had kissed him. He could taste the cheap coffee with too much cream and sugar and feel the weight of Steve’s body against his.  
  
“Gotta be honest, here,” Tony said. “It kinda seems like you  _can_.”  
  
“Tony,” it was almost plaintive, the way Steve said it, punctuated by the thunk of the glasses hitting the counter.  
  
“Hey, I’m just trying to understand here-”  
  
“You’re Howard’s son!” Steve yelled. They’d known each other for years by now. They’d run into battle together, bantered with each other, argued back and forth, and in all that time, through all those scenarios, Tony had never heard Steve yell quite like that.  
  
“Come again?”  
  
“You’re Howard’s son,” Steve repeated, quieter this time. He ran a hand across his face before grabbing the tumblers and a bottle from beneath the counter. “I try not to reduce you to that, Tony, I really do. Because you’re my friend, and you’re your own person who in so many way is nothing like Howard. But other times?” Steve shook his head, almost like he was trying to brush cobwebs from memories he wasn’t sure he wanted to put into the world. He set the glasses on the table, poured two fingers of whiskey into each one and lowered himself into a chair, sliding one glass in Tony’s direction. Tony approached cautiously, sat slowly, and waited.  
  
“You have his eyes,” Steve continued. “His smile. His swagger and style. You even hold your forks the same way -- and I know that sounds creepy, I promise I don’t just watch you eat all day.” Steve pulled a small round flask from his pocket. Nordic symbols were etched across its surface. Asgardian ale. A gift from Thor, no doubt. Steve removed the stopper and tapped two drops into his drink. He downed the liquid in one gulp and breathed deeply before continuing.  
  
“I’m sorry, Tony,” he said. “But I can’t do this with you. Because you’re Howard’s son, and it’s not right. Sometimes, you remind me so much of him, and it wouldn’t be fair.”  
  
“Fair?” Tony asked. He could kind of see the moral quandary Steve would feel about fooling around with his friend’s son -- except not really because if anything Tony was older than Steve in every way but the very technical -- but fair? “Who would it not be fair to?”  
  
Steve cocked his head and squinted at Tony, as if the answer that was so obvious to him should be obvious to anyone else.  
  
“ _You_ ,” he said. “Me. Anyone.” Steve poured another drink, tapped one more drop from the flask into it and took a sip. Three fingers curled loosely around the glass, and just the tiniest bit of the bottom rim rested on the edge his pinkie. Tony picked up his glass, took a drink and stared at his own hand, a mirror image of Steve’s, and exactly the way he’d grown up watching Howard. His lips pursed, and he could feel his brow furrowing every so slightly as he set the glass down and lightly ran a fingertip over its lip.  
  
“Did you...did you and my dad...I mean, were you...”  
  
“No.”  
  
“That was fast.”  
  
“Tony, I was soldier in the 1940s. We didn’t do that sort of thing. Besides, I had Peggy. Sort of.”   
  
It had taken years of experience and practice, but Tony had realized Steve wasn’t the sort of person he could steamroll and expect answers from. So he waited as Steve paused, fiddled with his drink and finally spoke again. “  
  
"If things had been different,” Steve said, “If now were then...I don’t know, it still probably would have been hopeless.”  
  
There were more words that could have been said. Admissions and declarations that could have been dragged into the light of day. But Steve didn’t need to say them, and Tony didn’t need to hear them for both to know the truth.  
  
“Did he know?” Tony asked.  
  
“No,” Steve said. “I don’t know, maybe. Probably not. You and I both know Howard’s scope of interest didn’t extend much beyond what he wanted.” Steve smiled at a memory. “But he sure was something back then.”  
  
“Tell me about him.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Come on, Rogers, you’re the one always reminding me that you only knew him when he was young-”  
  
“And you’re the one always reminding me how he turned out.”  
  
“Yeah, so, gimme something new. Tell me something I don’t know.”  
  
Steve smiled.  
  
“Well,” he said, “Howard was brilliant, but you already knew that. But he was the first person I ever knew who walked so effortlessly in two worlds. Genius scientist buried in his work by day; outgoing, fun-loving guy by night. I’ve never seen someone love life as much as he did.  
  
“When I got to Europe, one of the first things I did was completely disobey orders-”  
  
“You?”  
  
“Yeah. Practically an entire unit was being held deep in Hydra territory and no one would approve a rescue mission. But Peggy had an idea. She called on Howard, who of course had his own plane, and they dropped me off to do my thing. But on the way there -- keep in mind we’re behind enemy lines, artillery is exploding all around us and half of his plane’s mechanics were experimental -- and Howard can’t stop talking about fondue.”  
  
“Way to prioritize, Pop.”

“Of course, I had no idea what fondue was. I thought it was a euphemism and he was making a pass at Peggy.”  
  
Tony couldn’t help but laugh, and was a little surprised to see Steve smile and shake his head at the memory. Steve told story after story about Howard,and Tony could barely believe the guy he described could ever grow up to be his workaholic, stiff father. Steve made Howard sound  _fun._ From all the preparation surrounding Project Rebirth to the years in Europe fighting Hydra and Nazis, whenever Steve, Howard and Peggy were together, they were like the three musketeers of World War II. Four if you counted Steve’s friend Bucky as their D’Artagnan. And yet, it was the fondue story that stuck in Tony’s mind.  
  
“There’s something I don’t really get,” he said as Steve’s latest story wound down.  
  
“What’s that?”  
  
“I don’t…” Tony paused. The question, the more he thought about it, actually was probably in poor taste. But Steve wasn’t giving him an out.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Where does Aunt Peggy fit into all this?” Aunt Peggy. He hadn’t really thought of her since meeting Steve and hadn’t thought of her like that since he was a boy. But just like Howard, she always regaled him with stories of Steve Rogers, Captain America, Greatest Man on Earth, and the romance that was off and on and tragically cut short so New York could live.  
  
Steve looked down, at his hands before answering.  
  
“I loved her,” he said. “I still love her.”  
  
“But?”  
  
“Back then? But nothing. I loved her, end of story. Today ... ” Steve paused, searching for the words to a concept that eluded him in 1944. “I love Peggy. When I think about the life we could have had if things had been different, I'm so happy. But...when I think about what I miss most. And who I miss most. … Does that make sense?”  
  
“Absolutely.”  
  
Steve nodded and looked back down at his drink, tapping his fingers idly against the glass.  
  
“You weren’t wrong, though,” he finally said.   
  
“Rarely am, but about what?” The quip brought a brief smile to Steve’s face but it faded as he took a breath.   
  
“I am lonely,” he said. “And I am sad, sometimes. I throw myself into missions, because that’s what I know how to do. It’s easier to lead a SHIELD strike team in Belize than it is to find someone to build a relationship and a life with. Because I don’t want casual. And I don’t want a replacement. And I don’t want to risk the friends I’ve got. Understand?”  
  
“Yeah. Yeah, I get it.” Tony reached across the table and grasped Steve’s forearm, giving a slight squeeze. Steve’s eyes closed as he laid a hand over Tony’s.  
  
“Thanks.”  
  
Tony nodded. He didn’t have time to form words before his phone chimed.   
  
And chimed again.  
  
And again  
  
“Oh, what in the hell,” separating from Steve he pulled out the device and swiped at the screen. “It’s Pepper.”  
  
“Is she okay?”  
  
“Yeah. She says… ‘You’ve been gone forever, is Steve OK?’ Yes, you are -- you are, right?”  
  
Steve nodded and Tony continued reading.  
  
“ ‘Say hi for me’ - Hi.” Steve smiled and gave a little wave. “ ‘Also don’t forget to pick up...dicks?’ That can’t be right.” He tapped the screen a few more times. The phone chimed again. “MILK,” he said as Steve busted out laughing. “That makes more sense.”  
  
“You know, Tony, when I first met you, I never thought I’d see the day when the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist would be making his own milk run.”  
  
“What can I say, I’ve come a long way.”  
  
“Yes, you have.”  
  
Together they rose, and Steve collected the bottle and their glasses. He held up Tony’s.  
  
“Are you good to drive?”  
  
Tony rolled his eyes.  
  
“Yes, dad.”  
  
“I’m serious-”  
  
“It’s not even empty!” Tony exclaimed, but his smile gave away the good nature of his exasperation. Steve smiled as he walked Tony to the door of the apartment. He’d just turned the knob, when Tony stuck his hand against the wood, keeping it closed. Steve looked at him quizzically.   
  
“One more thing,” Tony said. Steve let go of the door and leaned against the frame.  
  
“When you do find someone - and I know you will,” Tony continued “Whoever it is will be one lucky bastard.” Tony nodded to a spot on the wall. “Because I’ve kissed a lot of people in my life and that was some A+ work, Cap.”  
  
“Tony,” Steve muttered as red crept back up his neck and cheeks.  
  
“I’m serious!”  
  
“Get  _out_  of here,” Steve said as he pulled the door open and gently, playfully pushed Tony into the hallway. He just barely caught Steve’s smile as the door closed, and it was enough to make Tony chuckle as he walked down the hallway.  
  
He’d come here half expecting a fight. But he left with so much more


End file.
